Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Chicory and the Queen

Henri and I still walk our circuitous route around the fields. It seems like overnight the field burst into new blooms. Suddenly the hill is awash in Chicory and Queen Anne's Lace. The photo doesn't accurately capture the beauty of the purple chicory mixed in with the white lacy Queen Anne's floating above the green grasses. Far back in the photo, at the left you will see a clump of white flowers standing alone at the tree line. This is a majestic clump of Queen Anne's Lace. It stands apart from the rest of the field. She looks like the royal queen presiding over her kingdom.

I think this little guy was learning how to fly. At first I thought he was diving at us and defending his territory but, after watching him a while, it looks like we crossed his learning-to-fly zone. He kept going back and forth between fence and bush, chirping and wobbling with every crossing and rough landing.

"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny?...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get."